The field of the disclosure relates generally to a centrifugal fan for an air moving application, and more specifically, to methods and apparatus for uniform airflow distribution within an air moving system comprised of a centrifugal fan and possibly housing assembly.
Fans and centrifugal fan in particular are used widely for a variety of an air moving application. The air typically is preferred to move in a particular manner. Among terms used to describe air flow is the term flow distribution. Flow distribution describes the uniformity of the flow at the exit of the fan or assembly. Flow quality describes the level of disturbance in the flow such as turbulence, vortices, eddies, or other unfavorable flow structures.
Typically a centrifugal fan has a blade section that is constant across the span of the blade.
Fans and centrifugal fan in particular are used widely for an air moving application. Such applications include those for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, commonly known as HVAC as well as any others including chillers for commercial buildings. Blowers used in furnaces in HVAC commonly used centrifugal fans. For use in such applications and for all fan applications uneven air flow distribution and air flow quality issues are a plaguing problem. Such uneven air flow distribution and air flow quality may negatively affect the efficiency of a fan. Further uneven air flow distribution and flow quality issues may result in excessive noise and vibration as well as reduced service life.
The present invention is directed to alleviate at least one of these problems.